LOS ANGELES REGIONAL

Outlook: Led by Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year and Golden Spikes finalist David Berg, who leads the nation in ERA, UCLA's staff ranked second in the Pac-12 and 16th in the nation in ERA. Adam Plutko (7-3, 2.60 ERA) and Nick Vander Tuig (10-4, 2.30 ERA), who both made the All-Conference team, anchor the rotation. UCLA's offense was last in the Pac-12 in batting, but boasts a few bats capable of getting hot, including that of senior Pat Valaika (.262, 5 HRs, 39 RBI) and sophomore Kevin Kramer (.290, 3 HRs, 38 RBI). San Diego State snuck into the NCAA Tournament by beating favorite New Mexico in the conference tournament. The Aztecs are led by Ty France (.313, 5 HRs, 35 RBI), Ryan Muno (.317, 4 HRs, 44 RBI), and Tim Zier (.346, 31 RBI, 17 SB).

Other game: Cal Poly vs. San Diego, 3 p.m.

LOS ANGELES – There's a complex elegance to the trajectory of a David Berg pitch that would no doubt take a master's degree in physics to fully comprehend.

From its low, sidearm release point, it gives any right-hander, as it hurdles straight at him, the impression of impending doom, often only to dart toward the bottom of the zone. It's a disarming moment for any right-handed hitter and one of the main reasons why few relievers in college baseball are more capable of getting ahead in the count. Even for left-handers, the sheer strangeness of Berg's sidearm release distracts them into falling behind.

But it's once the ball is on its flight path where the mysterious physics – or voodoo, whichever you prefer – come into play. Berg, unlike many pitchers of the overhand variety, operates with ease on two separate planes – vertically and horizontally. He is part technician, part engineer, and part geometer, manipulating hitters with a flick of his right wrist. It's the reason why the UCLA sophomore reliever currently leads the nation in ERA (0.70), while nearly doubling the number of appearances of almost all of his peers on that list.

With Berg, watching him work hitters into chess matches at the plate and force ground balls with freakish reliability, the mysticism behind his rise as one of best pitchers in college baseball seems to makes sense. It's easy to accept that fate has blessed him with a set of ridiciulous, yet-to-be-fully-explained skills. It's not easy, however, to understand how. Or why.

Berg is just 6 feet tall with a boyish face and a sneaky sort of athleticism that his coaches eagerly point to when trying to boost his profile. But beyond that, Berg's profile looks decidedly average on paper. His fastball barely touches the low-to-mid 80s. His stuff is nothing to write home about. Logic says, five years from now, he'll be a similar pitcher, if not exactly the same. Scouts aren't exactly busting down doors to see prospects with profiles like that.

Yet, as UCLA heads into regional action against San Diego State at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Friday, few among the college ranks have been able to solve the mystery that is Berg, who was named Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year on Wednesday. No college reliever in recent memory has been so dominant. And that has UCLA coach John Savage knocking on wood.

He won't be the one to jinx Berg's near-supernatural run as the Bruins' unhittable closer – a run he believes could eventually break the NCAA career saves mark. So like so many around his mysterious reliever, he's resorted to superstition.

Is it just the sidearm release and the deception that comes with it that has made the one-time scholarship-less walk-on a Golden Spikes candidate? And if so, is the day coming when he'll look mortal again? The question has Savage knocking again on his desk. Like anyone who has witnessed Berg's dynamic season, he has wondered the same things.

"He's different," Savage says, "but he's also very average, which I think enamors a lot of people. He's kind of ordinary. But at the same time, he's not. It's a funny dynamic. Sometimes we walk into the clubhouse shaking our heads, like, 'Wow, he did it again.'

"Sometimes, we swear he's from another planet."

FAST RISE TO SUCCESS

Perhaps what makes Berg's transformation into college baseball's most unhittable pitcher all the more mysterious and unbelievable is how swiftly and unexpectedly it came about.

Chris Beck, Berg's former pitching coach at Bishop Amat High in La Puente, remembers that Berg well; although the memory seems somewhat unreal today, almost like a dream. That Berg, an overhand-throwing version of the reliever we know now, was a nervous wreck on the mound. He paced in between pitches and would often walk halfway to the plate to retrieve the ball from his catcher. He struggled just to get out of innings alive.

"Do we need to bring you a cigarette?" coaches would jokingly ask. They hoped the humor might calm him down.

"He was essentially a mess," Beck says.

Berg pitched in just seven innings during his junior season and could sense his role on the team diminishing. Meanwhile, his coaches discussed the same problem, wondering if they could even afford to use him on the mound the next season.

That's when Beck recalled the strategy of a local baseball coach that he often faced during his previous tenure as an assistant at Loyola High in Los Angeles.

Scott Muckey, who had long been the coach at Crespi High in Encino, made a habit of turning one of his pitchers every year into a sidearmer in order to give his opponents a different look out of the bullpen. It was a strategy met with mixed results, but Beck had seen Berg toss a decent sidearm before while playing catch at practice. Maybe that would extend Berg's career, he thought. They had nothing to lose.

As ideal as the change sounded in principle, neither Berg nor any of his coaches knew much, if anything, about the mechanics of sidearm pitching. So Berg experimented as much as he could out of his new arm slot, just hoping to find his sweet spot. Beck, meanwhile, tried his best to teach Berg the intangibles of pitching that he so obviously lacked.

It was a desperate shot in the dark, at best. But not long into his senior season, coaches started to notice a newfound consistency in their rebranded sidearmer. Berg had continued to tinker with his release, and almost over night, it seemed, he could find the strike zone with ease. His fastball began diving under and around bats, mystifying opponents. His confidence, almost nonexistent just a few months before, grew.

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